UN accuses Houthi rebels of diverting aid

ROME: The UN World Food Programme (WFP) on Monday accused Houthi rebels of “criminal behaviour” in diverting humanitarian aid in war-stricken Yemen and threatened to end cooperation with them.

A large part of the food aid meant to help residents in the capital Sanaa has not reached them, the Rome-based WFP said in a statement. Instead, reports had established some of the food had been put on sale in Sanaa markets by a rebel-controlled organisation which the WFP had entrusted to distribute the aid in the city. The WFP said similar cases had been reported in other areas of the country controlled by the rebels.

“This conduct amounts to the stealing of food from the mouths of hungry people,” WFP Executive Director David Beasley said in the statement. “At a time when children are dying in Yemen because they haven’t enough food to eat, that is an outrage. This criminal behaviour must stop immediately,” Beasely said.